Farm Subsidies
As members of the congressional deficit reduction supercommittee work to come up with a plan to provide for $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, one tempting target is agricultural subsidies. According to the Department of Agriculture, net farm income is projected to reach $103.6 billion in 2011, which is about 31 percent higher than 2010. Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees have devised a proposal to cut Agriculture Department spending by $23 million over 10 years — almost half of the $50 billion that direct payments would cost over that period. The plan is expected to focus instead on…
